Gallup Opens Abu Dhabi Center

Polling giant Gallup has opened a new social research center in Abu Dhabi headed by a U.S. government appointee. But the center’s affiliation with Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Court has ramifications for public diplomacy.

Gallup, the management consultancy best known for its polling service, has opened a new social research center in Abu Dhabi headed by a U.S. government appointee. The center’s affiliation with Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Court is a diplomacy coup for the country, but it raises questions about the limitations of doing research in a constitutional monarchy.

The Abu Dhabi Gallup Center is scheduled to open this fall, specializing in research and analysis of both the Persian Gulf region and the larger Muslim world. Described in a press release as a “partnership” between Gallup and the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi, the Gallup Center is one of the polling agency’s first collaborations where a foreign government has a stake in operations. Although the Crown Prince Court is nominally independent, in practice it is a government agency.

Gallup’s Eric Nielsen confirmed in an interview with Fast Company that the Crown Prince Court has provided funding for the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center, but further specifics were not immediately available. Nielsen emphasized that Gallup will have full editorial control over reports and projects coming out of Abu Dhabi, with the Crown Prince Court primarily being limited to “assisting on topic selection.”

A number of American researchers and analysts will be working alongside Mogahed in Abu Dhabi this fall, with approximately 10 initially headed overseas. In addition, Gallup has been hiring locally. The Gallup Center Abu Dhabi will be working under the supervision of the more well-established Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.

First on the agenda for the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center is a follow-up report to “Who Speaks for Islam?” The massive 2008 project is described by Gallup as the result of “tens of thousands of interviews with residents of more than 35 nations that are predominantly Muslim or have significant Muslim populations.” Co-written by Mogahed and Georgetown University’s John Esposito, the updated edition will reflect data compiled by Gallup from 2007-10. The report is slated for a late November release.

Public diplomacy experts see interesting smoke signals coming out of the Abu Dhabi center. Paul Rockower of the University of Southern California’s Public Diplomacy Corps project notes that Gallup’s affiliation with the Crown Prince Court may give them wiggle room on their operations: “If they’re established with the Court, Gallup might get some leeway from the government to ask more interesting questions but it really varies country-by-country. In-country polling firms are very careful as they know what will get them in trouble and they know where they can bend the rules.”

Rockower also emphasized that landing Gallup was a major public diplomacy coup for both Abu Dhabi and the Emirates: “It lets Gallup create a broader global presence and lets the Emirates, and Abu Dhabi in particular, further brand itself as a Gulf hub of research and scholarship. The Emirates has been working for a long time to conduct public diplomacy via nation branding to highlight its internationalist credentials. This is just one more piece of that branding push.”